Ayr United 3 Dunfermline 0
There were simple questions in Somerset Park. Can Ayr United leave the championship? And can Dunfermline stay in it?
The answers were not decisive. Ayr's victory means that a play-off place is confirmed, but not an automatic promotion. The fragile display of Dunfermline means a play-off that opens the traps to League One cannot be discounted.
This was the sobering reality behind the understandable hype of the pars with a one-off £ 12 million player who was signed and then sent away in his first match and the considerable celebrity of managers Neil Lennon and Scott Brown in the Dugouts.
A considerable travel support, flawlessly detailed on 922, was boisterous and encouraging. The Lennon factor has strengthened them, but the manager knows that the results must follow. The Fifers adhere to that tired template of most struggling teams: they have admitted goals and they cannot score. It is a simple comparison that managers have difficulty solving.
Brown and Lennon can be affected in their immediate ambitions by support from the terraces. The Hub in Somerset Park on Saturday was teeming with fans of both clubs. There was certainly expectation, and also a strong understanding of the reality that their clubs are confronted with.
The Lennon and Victor Wanyama Factor had tempted the brothers Gary and Derek Ramsay, their friend Andy Wellwood and his 14-year-old son Keir, to make Fife's journey.
“He has been a Dunfermline fan for his days. He was a mascot and played for the Academy team and is now at Alloa, “says his father of Keir.
'I work services, so don't go to all games, but Lennon and Wanyama have made the decision today. It has been a disappointing season and we should not be where we are. The reasons? Management agreements and not enough investments. '
Derek Ramsay, who was in the Cup final of 1965 when Jock Stein's Celtic defeated the Pars, chips in: 'I was only nine at the time, but it has been a tough time since then. We have to be a big club and we are not at the moment. The goal is to stay up this season and at least go the play-offs next year. '
The mood among Ayr supporters was predictably more floating. Glenn Montgomery, 58, has been coming to Somerset for more than half a century. 'My cousin eventually married Johnny Doyle, the Great Ayr hero who then played for Celtic. She then went out with him. So my uncle took me to the games and I always came back.
“At the start of the season it looked promising,” he says about the current campaign. “Then a bad enchantment came and then we came back. If you ask an Ayr fan before the season, they would have had a challenge for second place. '
His partner, Kevin Shove, says: “I had a small bet on us on us to win the competition, but the hand luggage with rotation of keepers and large Anton Dowds who are injured at the start of the season has a bit derailed.”
However, Montgomery points out: “We are going in the right direction.”
At the next table in the hub is Gordon Mcblain, once a sponsor of the club and an old supporter, wry about his life in Somerset.
'I am 62 and have come here since I was eight or nine. I remember the Premier League (1978-79) when we were relegated. I thought: “Down does not hurt us for a year.” We have never been back. '
He points out: “We are second, guaranteed play-offs, but some are disappointed. I am always a confident person. I hope my best memories will have to come.”
His friend, Colin Sturgeon, says: 'I can remember pieces of the Premier League. I was five or six. My father then stopped going, but I came back with school friends in the 1980s and never faded again since then.
“There is a sense of optimism. We hit the door and hopefully we will get it soon. '
Tom Simpson, who is 51, says that his best memories are to beat Kilmarnock. The most famous victories were the Scottish Cup Tie victories in 1998 and 1999.
“I worked as an accountant in Abu Dhabi,” he says. “I listened to one of those games about the world service and when we scored, I jumped up and unintentionally gave my flat partner who stood behind me an uppercut.”
He shares a small sense of disappointment with other supporters that the good start of the season has not led to a place at the top of the table, but points out that this is a season in which the championship was very open to the starting line.
'In previous years you have rangers, hearts, hibs, both Dundee parties … That is very difficult to prevent. But this season I had the feeling that we had a chance. We made the play-offs under (Lee) a few seasons ago, but that was largely at the back of Dipo (Akineymi), who scored many goals. This team is better around. '
However, he believes that the basis is for a better future, regardless of how this season is going on.
'The chairman (David Smith) is a real Ayr fan. He started the infrastructure and has also invested in the team. We have the building blocks in place. '
The hub is proof of that strategy, just like the northern stand and the hospitality facilities. The club has also acquired land behind the railway end, with plans for training facilities.
A fan passes by and says, “He even grown the parking lot.”
This was little comfort for a local hero. Andy Walker, who played for Ayr in 1998-99 and was a guest during Saturday's game.
“I appeared in the parking lot and the steward was left that she couldn't offer me a place,” he says laughing. “She said it was full, but added:” If it was up to me, you would have a free parking space right outside the doors “. She still remembered me, especially for * that goal * against Kilmarnock and kindly pointed me to a space on the street nearby. '
Walker scored two penalties against Kilmarnock in the win in January 1999. * That goal * was the second, a Panenka that remained in the hearts of Ayr fans.
“I thought it was great here,” he says. “We had a good season and the highlight was beating Kilmarnock, but we could have done better.”
He leads through the rain to Somerset: “It is one of those great, old -fashioned stadiums that you like to visit.”
Is there a chance that the beautiful land that Premiership clubs regularly host, perhaps as part of an extensive top division that could include Ayr, Dunfermline, Partick Thistle and Morton, all of which have strong support?
“I see that prospect as a complete and extreme imagination, considering how the Scottish football works,” says Walker. 'Celtic and Rangers control everything, and you will never get it unless they agree. And they will never agree.
'I always hear the competition construction from people who want to see the development of Scottish players. Look today at the games in all competitions. How many young Scots play?
'I was in a young group in Motherwell, with Chris McCart, Tom Boyd, Gary Mcallister, Fraser Wisart … We all got the chance early. I'm not sure if that is happening now. I know that Motherwell has Lennon Miller, but they recruit from League One and Two in England, and even the National League. This also applies to other parties in Scotland.
'We see the results of this. The Under-21s were beaten by Iceland. '
The questions for Ayr and Dunfermline were not fully answered on Saturday.
However, there are larger ones for the Scottish game.
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